Each year since
the Year of the Rabbit in 2011, New York artist Peiliang Jin has
commemorated the Chinese New Year for the World Journal by creating
unique animal watercolor paintings of the Chinese zodiac. When
approached by the World Journal, he knew he wanted to incorporate in
the finished work a wide variety of traditional and modern art forms
from Chinese, European and American traditions. Each watercolor
includes elements of calligraphy, seal cutting, oil and watercolor
painting, sculpture, wood and paper cutting, embroidery, wall
painting, ceramics and porcelain decoration. For the background, he
uses one of the 12 unique colors in the 12-Color Wheel and each zodiac
image is painted using 17 other different colors. For the Year of the
Horse in 2014, as in prior years, a different representation of the
Chinese character for "horse," taken from history and
literature, is used for each illustration, adding to the authenticity
of the images.